THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 25, 1995 TAG: 9506250219
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Onlookers have marveled all season at the glovework of Norfolk Tides shortstop Rey Ordonez. He's so smooth with his pickups and so quick with his release that he rarely gets to show off his arm strength.
It was on full display Saturday night, though, with the game on the line. And anyone in the crowd of 9,628 with a lick of baseball sense left Harbor Park impressed.
With the Tides protecting a two-run lead in the ninth, Ordonez took a relay throw from rightfielder Derek Lee in shallow rightfield, then turned and fired to Alberto Castillo to nail Toledo's Rudy Pemberton at the plate.
Pinch-hitter Rob Lukachyk, who doubled to the fence in right to start the play, eventually scored. But the Tides allowed no more and beat the Mud Hens, 2-1, to stretch their lead in the International League West to 5 1/2 games.
It was the Tides' second consecutive one-run victory over Toledo and the second straight night in which a Mud Hen was cut down at the plate. In Friday's 4-3 victory, rightfielder Carl Everett did the strong-arming and Lukachyk was the victim.
``We're just finding ways to win,'' said reliever Paul Byrd.
The Tides, 48-29 and 19 games over .500 for the first time this season, were so thrilled by Ordonez's play that management is running off 5,000 full-color posters of the shortstop to give out at today's 1:15 p.m. game.
Just kidding. That promotion was already in the works.
``Ordonez never gave up on the play,'' Tides manager Toby Harrah said. ``That's one of the best plays in baseball. It took a perfect throw from Derek, a perfect throw from Rey, and Castillo did a great job of blocking the plate.''
Ordonez contributed offensively as well. He led off the third with a single to left, advanced on Ricky Otero's sacrifice bunt, reached third on a wild pitch and scored on Edwin Alicea's single to right.
That looked like it might be enough for the International League's stingiest pitching staff. Al Osuna (3-0) had gone five-plus innings and Byrd had turned in three innings of middle relief work that stymied the Mud Hens.
Then the Tides added a run in the eighth when Carl Everett tattooed starter Kent Bottenfield's first pitch of the inning to the base of the leftfield wall. Omar Garcia followed with a run-scoring single up the middle for a 2-0 lead.
After Tides reliever Bryan Rogers gave up back-to-back hits to Pemberton and Lukachyk to start the ninth, he threw a wild pitch to Kevin Baez that allowed Lukachyk to move to third. Lukachyk scored when Baez grounded out to third. Rogers struck out Justin Mashore to end it as the Tides won for the sixth time in their last seven outings. It was Rogers' fifth save of the season.
The Tides, who lost six of their first eight games in June, appear back on track.
``We ran into a real slump there,'' Byrd said. ``But we're coming out of it hot.
``And even when we were slumping it wasn't as bad as what teams usually go through in a slump.''
NOTES: Pitching today will be lefthander Jimmy Williams (4-2, 3.70 ERA) for the Tides and lefthander Buddy Groom (1-0, 0.00) for Toledo. After today's game, the Tides hit the road before returning to Harbor Park on Saturday for two games with Richmond. by CNB